Welcome…

…to the third edition of Intertraffic World – the successful partnership between the publisher of Traffic Technology International and the organiser of the Intertraffic events

   You will undoubtedly gauge many trends by reading the following 284 pages of this 2012 edition of Intertraffic World. Our largest section starting on page 73 is ‘Traffic Management’ and to some extent reflects the way I have seen Intertraffic Amsterdam transform over the past five years or so. The world’s leading players in the ITS field – vendors in smart tolling, eSafety and telemetrics – are increasingly wanting to communicate and integrate with the traditional highways sector, many of which are featured in our ‘Infrastructure’ section (p23). And with more than 25,000 visitors expected, there’s no better place to do that than at the world’s biggest platform for the highways and traffic sector! Much of the growth of Intertraffic Amsterdam 2012 (27-30 March) – 806 exhibitors last time around and more than 900 this time – has been down to companies at the forefront of ITS and smart mobility clamouring to take part. But intelligent integration takes many forms…

   As our ‘Parking’ section (p217) clearly shows, as an industry it’s blazed a trail by encouraging the growth of electric mobility. In March at Intertraffic Amsterdam, however, you will see how I envisage convergence in the future. I am adamant the electric vehicle will become the iPhone of the energy sector, and that all of the individual sectors within our halls will eventually collaborate to formulate the ultimate smart mobility concept: wirelessly connected electric vehicles feeding from (and back into) the network, all communicating in real-time, even predictively, to guarantee maximum safety, efficiency, reliability – and above all else a clean and sustainable society.

   On this subject, I am very pleased to announce that CEVITTS – an exhibition dedicated to these sustainable developments – will be co-located alongside Intertraffic Amsterdam. In addition to a vast array of solutions to turn this e-mobility vision into a reality, CEVITTS will host a free-to-attend seminar within which you will hear about trends, market developments and business cases, as well as pilot results, panel discussions, tenders and new project launches. I know many visitors to Intertraffic Amsterdam will find the content entirely complementary to our own industries. The CEVITTS pavilion will also showcase distributed renewable solutions to meet what should be our collective goals to foster a clean environment and energy independence. A number of electric vehicle research projects will also participate, while a series of Technical and Business sessions will show you the enormous commercial charging possibilities that exist if only you innovate.

   Hall 9, meanwhile, is home to our Smart Mobility segment, featuring various consortia including the ComESafety2 project, the aim of which is to bring about the deployment of cooperative, communcation-based active safety systems. While I was in Florida recently, BMW’s Markus Strassberger, project lead, showed me some of the systems he thinks will contribute to a future of accident-free driving, and on page 10 he reveals more. We are also very proud to host TNO’s Dutch Integrated Test site for Cooperative Mobility (DITCM), the goal of which is to accelerate and cut the costs of innovation through an open development environment – important aims I’m sure you will agree. And to whet your appetite further, we also welcome the EasyWay consortium, which will present the latest results of its 10-year scheme to decrease traffic fatalities by 25%, congestion by 25% and CO2 emissions by 10% – all by 2017! All three – and more – will be staging live demonstrations in March.

   And in case you haven’t noticed, you’re holding another industry trend in your hands – our biggest issue to date by far! Our partnership with the publisher of Traffic Technology International has helped me achieve a very important and personal ambition to extend the multimedia platform of the Intertraffic brand. The only way is up and I invite you to share in our success. See you in Amsterdam!

Best regards,
Erik W. Dijkshoorn
Intertraffic Worldwide Events